THE DRAMATIZATION OF NOVELS AND
THE NOVELIZATION OF PLAYS
THE DRAMATIZATION OF NOVELS AND
THE NOVELIZATION OF PLAYS
I
In Professor Bliss Perry's admirably suggestive 'Study of Prose
Fiction,' he devotes one chapter to a careful consideration of the
essential distinctions between prose fiction and the drama, in which he
makes it plain that "the novel and the play are not merely two different
modes of communicating the same fact or truth," because "the different
modes of presentation really result in the communication of a different
fact." Professor Perry declares that the field of the dramatist is
marked off from that of the novelist "by the nature of the artistic
medium which each man employs," and he asserts that the choice of a
medium for presenting his story and projecting his characters "depends
wholly upon the personality and training of the artist and the nature of
the fact or truth that he wishes to convey to the public". And he sums
up by insisting that "a novel is typically as far removed from a play as
a bird is from a fish, and that any attempt to transform one into the
other is apt to result in a sort of flying-fish, a betwixt-and-between
thing--capable, indeed, of both swimming and flying, but good at
neither." In other words, a dramatized novel or a novelized play is an
attempt to breed an amphibious creature which, as the Irishman once
defined it, "can't live on the land, and dies in the water."
The difference between the novel and the play is due to the inexorable
fact that one is intended to be read alone in the study, and that the
other is intended to be seen on the stage by a crowd; it ought to be
obvious to all who care to consider the question, and yet there are many
who fail to grasp the distinction, deceived by the illusive but
superficial similarities between the two forms, each of which contains a
story carried on by characters who take part in dialogs. And as a result
of this failure to apprehend the vital differences between the two types
of story-telling, the narrative to be perused and the action to be
witnessed, our theaters have long been invaded by dramatized novels, and
our book-stores are now being besieged by novelized plays. In many
cases, if not in most of them, the motive for the transformation is
simply commercial; and in view of the immediate gain to be garnered, the
artistic disadvantages of the procedure are overlooked. If hundreds of
thousands of readers have found pleasure in following the footsteps of a
fascinating heroine thru the pages of a prose fiction, it is possible
always that hundreds of thousands of spectators may be lured to behold
her adventures when they are set forth anew in a stage-play. And if a
compelling plot has drawn audiences night after night into the theater,
it is possible again that this plot may attract book-buyers in equal
numbers when it is retold in a narrative for the benefit of those
remote from the playhouse, or reluctant to risk themselves within its
portals. Managers are ready to tempt the novelist with the hope of a
second crop of fame and fortune, and publishers dangle the same golden
bait before the eyes of the dramatist.
Altho this effort to kill two birds with one stone is more frequent of
late than it used to be, it is not at all new--indeed it existed before
the rise of prose fiction. The dramatic poets of Greece borrowed
episodes from the earliest epic poets. Centuries later Shakspere laid
violent hands on Italian tales and on English romances. On the other
hand, while it must be admitted that the dramatizing of novels has been
far more prevalent in the past than the novelizing of plays, this latter
practise, suddenly popular in the twentieth century, was not unknown in
the centuries that preceded ours. For example, Le Sage levied upon the
Spanish playwrights for many of the characters and the situations he
needed, for his rambling, picaresque novels, 'Gil Blas' and its sister
stories. Another illustration can be found in England earlier than any
in France; and before the play of 'Pericles,' which Shakspere seems to
have edited and improved, was printed and perhaps even before it was
performed, it was novelized by an obscure writer named Wilkins, who was
very probably the author of the original version of the straggling piece
that Shakspere revised. Thru the long years prose fiction and the drama
have struggled with each other for the favor of the public, and each of
them has always been willing to borrow from its rival whenever it found
material fitted for its own special purpose.